Re: KuJomu - the writing

En réponse à Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>:

>
> I may've expressed myself badly. Let's go again; I cannot reasonably
> doubt
> my own existence, but how does this make my existence certain?
>
The problem is not whether you cannot doubt your own existence or not, the fact
is that the very fact that you are now doubting proves that you must exist. If
you didn't exist, you wouldn't be doubting right now. The point is not only
that you cannot doubt your own existence, but also that you must exist in order
to even think: "I don't doubt my own existence". You arrive at a loop where you
must necessarily posit your own existence as certain, or you will reach a
contradiction: if you don't exist, you cannot be thinking and doubting. But you
are thinking and doubting right now, so you have to exist in order to do those
things. That's what I meant with the equivalence "cogito, sum": the very fact
that I am thinking means that I necessarily exist, and since no other attribute
can be given to me *at this point of the discussion* except the thinking, I
necessarily exist as a thinking being.

In short, it's not the fact that you cannot reasonably doubt your own existence
that makes your existence certain, but the fact that you are *doing* this very
doubting.

Christophe.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.